Harvest Moon: Best Friends of Mineral Town
by cutiedogsapphire
Summary: Claire decided to get away from city life, and when she saw an ad in the newspaper she found her life calling. Running a farm. This story is based on HM: MFoMT. Pairings: Claire/Gray and OC/Cliff
1. The Farm

The room had a faint dull color to it as she walked through the door; she was used to this strange feeling since this was her apartment, and she hated it with all her heart. Her job as a cashier didn't work out well, and she barely got paid. All she could afford was a small one room apartment, with a table, bed, and phone. She hung out in the park most of her days, so she only went to her apartment to sleep and read the newspaper; she didn't have a television so that was all she could have for news.

She had just gotten home from a hard day at work, she worked double time to earn some extra money; she thought it was worth it at the time. The room still seemed dark when she turned on the little light above her to read the newspaper. She read it at night since she had no time in the morning to sit and relax with a newspaper.

Everything seemed normal; just like all the other newspapers. It had advertisements for all sorts of things that she had no interest for. As she scanned it for interesting information, she saw a strange ad with a farm on it.

_Everything you've always wanted. This farm is for sale for cheap, and it's a one time offer. Want to live a easy relaxing life? Then come to Mineral Town and buy this wonderful farm. You even get your own dog if you call right now. _

_The number is: (275)-634-0098_

"This is it!" She nearly shouted as she jumped for her small dusty phone; she wasn't going to miss a chance like this. A farm sounds simple enough, and completely worth it in the long run; choosing your own hours, relaxing by a river, playing with a cute dog. It was definitely worth it.

She dialed the phone number quickly on the phone and got an answer a few rings later, "Hello?" It was a man's voice on the other end.

"Excuse me; is that farm still for sale?" She crossed her fingers, hoping he'd say yes.

"Why yes it is, are you going to buy it?" His voice sounded cheerful; too cheerful.

"I'm thinking about it; I'll go to mineral town tomorrow to check things out." In reality she was already going to pack and quit her job as quickly as possible. She made her choice; she was going to start a new life.

"O-Okay..." His voice sounded a bit off after she said those words; the farm probably wasn't a good seller, since most people don't want to live happily. Their lose.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow, bye." She smiled widely as she hung up the phone, and squealed loudly. "YES!" She raised her fist in the air and started to dance around like a blonde idiot. Well, she was blonde after all.

She quickly fixed herself up and started packing her things, after that she was going to call and quit her job, and get her last paycheck of course.

_This was so worth it._

_

* * *

_

_This was so not worth it._

She stared in confusion as she looked at an old run down farm that looked like it was ready to fall to pieces in the next minute. The field looked horrible, it was full of stones, sticks, and weeds _a ton of weeds_.

"What is this?" She asked carefully when she knew the mayor was standing behind her. Her eye twitched as she took in the farm she had just bought _with most of her money_.

"T-This is the farm." Mayor Thomas shuddered as he looked down in shame. "We needed to sell it, so I put a good add in the newspaper." He sighed to himself when he knew what he did was wrong.

"I just spent most of my money, and quit my job. For this." She waved her arms towards the farm, showing how horrible it was.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." He backed up slightly, afraid she was going to snap and go crazy. Her left eye twitched.

"Maybe..." She trailed off looking at the farm again, "I'll just go with it." It looked horrible, but with work and determination, maybe she could have that relaxing life she had dreamed of.

_Maybe..._

"R-Really?!" Thomas squeaked as he took in the good news. "Great!" He looked like he was about to dance in victory and joy. "Want a tour of your new town?"

"Nah, I'm going to start on this farm, I'll look around myself." A grin went on her face; she could get a good workout with this much work. "Oh, and by the way, my name is Claire."

"Well Claire," he smiled brightly as he stepped back towards the town, "welcome to Mineral Town." It seemed nice to hear that; no one ever welcomed her to the city back where she lived.

_Maybe this was her calling in life_.

_Maybe..._


	2. The Tour

Things were going smoothly; she worked all day yesterday and had gone to sleep early so she could wake up early, like a real farmer.

It was 6 o'clock when she woke up to a nice spring morning. The day was Tuesday, spring 3rd.

"Maybe I can take a tour around town soon." Claire decided when she stared at the map of Mineral Town. The closest place to her small farm was the blacksmith shop, and then there were two other farms besides her own. She decided to name her farm something simple, to make it seem like she knew what she was doing. She called it Harvest Farm.

Her cute puppy that came along with the farm she called Speed, because that's what he looked like he was on all the time; he never seemed to run out of energy.

While she was working on her wonderful farm a man showed up, calling himself Zack, and he was in charge of shipping items. He told her that if she puts something in the bin close to her field he'll pick it up and pay her for it. He appears at 5pm everyday except holidays and festivals. He also told her to not overwork herself, and to make sure to stay healthy.

The people here seemed nice enough to get to know here. Making friends couldn't be too hard.

Claire cheered to herself as she ate her piece of bread, she wasn't hungry yet, but she still decided to eat something so she wouldn't be hungry later. Speed ran up to her in excitement; it seemed as though he wanted to be petted. He looked too cute to resist, so she picked him up and took him outside with her. She set him down and looked towards the town. It all seemed unknown to her, she had always lived in a big city.

"Well Speed," she looked towards her cute puppy, who couldn't hear her since he was halfway across the field, "Its time to meet my neighbors."

Claire took a hesitant step forward and shuddered. "Good luck." She whispered to herself while she started walking towards the town.

Outside her small farm was the countryside, there was a long road heading north; then she came to another road, and came across a small sign. It claimed with three arrows, which ahead is North side of Mineral Town, to the side is South side of Mineral Town, and the bottom one claiming there was an old farm. She was going to have to change that later. Claire shrugged and turned towards the side; might as well start with the county side.

She spotted the blacksmith shop first off, it was just a small house, but they probably upgrade anyone's tools. Her tools that came along with the farm were a bit dull and needed some work; she'll be visiting them soon enough. There was no need to go there at that very second, they could be extremely busy.

So instead of walking towards it, she just continued down the road and found a farm different from her own. Actually, looking at the poultry, it was considered a ranch. When she had money, she'll definitely be going here to buy an adorable chicken. _All of them just looked so cute!_

After walking further, and away from the cute chickens, she spotted another ranch. "I guess I have the only farm." She muttered to herself as the cows in the ranch made a loud mooing noise. Cows looked interesting as well, she might raise one some day.

"Maybe I can have a ranch farm thingy, or something." She smiled and looked around the area. She spotted a path going up and decided to follow it and see where she'll end up.

Where she ended up was a huge square; after looking at a sign it was called Rose Square. This was probably the place where the festivals took place. She looked at her watch and almost freaked out! It was eight thirty and she barely did anything today.

"Excuse me…"

Claire stopped moving almost instantly. There was a mysterious voice behind her, and she was once again acting like a complete idiot. "Great going, Claire. Now the people here will think you're a lunatic." She muttered to herself as she turned around slowly.

"Are you new to this village, I've never seen you before." It was a man, he had a blue hat on covering most of his blond hair; the hat said UMA. She wondered for a second what that meant, and why he wore it. He also had blue eyes, but she could barely tell since his hat tried to cover his eyes.

"Yeah, uh, I'm new to Mineral Town, I'm Claire." She straightened herself out as he walked towards her, coming from a different direction. He looked a bit shy, but tried to stay in control. "I was taking a tour; I bought the old farm out in the country. It's called the Harvest Farm."

"Oh, you're the new farmer?" He looked surprised, but calmed down. "That's really nice; so you're going to run it all by yourself?"

"Yeah; I don't really have any friends that could help me. I moved from the city." Claire chuckled softly to herself, she hated the city, but then again, this place looked even harder to earn a living.

"I used to live in the city." He perked up at the word city, "I'm Gray." He extended his hand for a nice welcoming handshake. Claire smiled and shook back gently.

"It was nice meeting you." Claire decided it was time to move on towards the rest of the town; even though Gray was extremely cute.

"Yeah, I better go before my Grandpa gets mad at me for being late. I work at the blacksmith shop, drop by sometime." He smiled and nodded his head as he walked in the direction I came from, and soon disappeared towards where she just was.

"He was nice." And with that said she started off towards the direction he came from, faintly wondering where she'll end up.

After traveling down a few roads, completely dodging some places that didn't interest her, she ended up in front of the church. "I guess people in small towns need their religions as well." She shrugged and decided to see what it was about, she never really was a religious person.

"Is anyone here?" Claire called out in a normal voice when she opened the unlocked doors. It was a small church, but still very pretty. She only noticed two people when she fully walked in; one was sitting in the front row, and the other was probably the pastor of the church.

"Welcome." The pastor calmly stated a hint of surprise in his voice. No one really knew that she had bought the farm, so people probably just thought she was a visitor. "Do you need any help?"

"No thank you, but I'm new to this town. I just bought the old farm, which I named the Harvest Farm, and I'm looking around." Claire introduced herself in a kind manner; she really didn't have to upset the church. "My name is Claire."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Claire. I'm the pastor of Mineral Town, Carter." He bowed slightly, but his eyes wandered to the boy sitting quietly on the front row, close to where Claire was.

The boy looked up when he noticed Carter gazing at him and looked towards her for the first time. He had long reddish-brown hair, and it was pulled back into a loose ponytail. He looked completely shy, "I-I'm Cliff…"

He was so _cute!_

She almost squealed as she skipped over to where Cliff sat; she smiled hugely and held out her hand. Cliff blushed, but held out his hand as well. Claire took this to her advantage, and instead of shaking his hand like he had thought, she lifted him up and embraced him in a big hug. "Nice to meet you Cliff," she just seemed to hug him tighter, "I bet we'll be best friends." And with that, she let go and observed his bright red face.

_She was going to like Mineral Town after all._


	3. The great adventure to the store

"Well, I believe since I'm new around here that I need a proper tour around town." Claire stated, trying to prove a point, "and since all you're doing is sitting around here, you should lead the tour."

"Um…" Cliff couldn't really talk; he was still recovering from the hug she had given him. She thought it was a good idea at the time, but now she knew it was a bad idea. She barely even knew him, and she did that.

"I'm such an idiot." She muttered to herself as she sighed loudly. "Never mind," she turned to face him, "I'm just going to go now; it really was nice meeting you."

Claire got up from her spot next to Cliff, and stood in front of him. "I'll talk to ya later." She didn't seem too happy, but she didn't want to scare him anymore, so she bowed her head and started off towards the door. She'll just go on the rest of the tour by herself. It wasn't so bad, she barely could get lost around the city; she could manage a small village.

* * *

After traveling around the small town, she realized just how friendly everyone could be. The store was closed today, so she couldn't buy any seeds to start her farm, but she did visit the clinic to see a nice nurse, her name was Elli, and a hott doctor who was called doctor by everyone._ "I wonder if he even has a name…" _she faintly wondered when she found that out.

Then she saw a nice library being runned by a girl named Mary, she was really shy, and she gave Claire a library card so Claire could borrow books whenever she wants.

It was around two o'clock when Claire returned to the farm; she didn't see all the places, but she'll visit the rest the next day when she goes to town to buy some seeds. "I have all the right tools, but nothing to show for them." Claire sighed when she sat down on her bed. She felt exhausted after all that walking.

"Maybe I should go work a little more on my farm, so I can get things ready for tomorrow." Claire pondered around for a few minutes and decided it was the best idea, and she still had some strength left.

* * *

The time was unknown to her; all she knew was it was way passed dark. She could barely see the weeds in front of her as she sliced them away. It was probably around nine o'clock, but she wanted to get a bunch done by the next day, so she could have a good amount done before she started to plant the seeds. Speed howled in the background, or what she thought was her dog, but she didn't have the faintest clue. "Maybe I should stop for now…" the howl sort of scared her because she didn't really know if there were stray dogs around.

Another howl sounded close by. "Yup time to go to bed." Claire yelped as she ran towards her door. She didn't have a fear of dogs, but she did have a fear of getting hurt, and she didn't want to be in pain on the first week she was in Mineral Town.

* * *

"I woke up late…" Claire grumbled to Speed when she looked at the clock; it was eight in the morning. "Farmers are supposed to wake up early."

Speed whined a bit and rubbed against her leg; Claire sighed and reached out towards him and picked him up. "Oh well, I'll just start my day a little late, I had a lot done last night, so I think I'm okay." She smiled and nuzzled her cute puppy and placed him gently on the ground.

"Its time to start a new day!" Claire cheered and ran out the door and towards the town. She remembered that the store opened at nine, so she had an hour to look around and get to the store; she didn't quite finish her tour yesterday.

* * *

On Claire's small journey to the store she ran into a winery; she wasn't quite old enough to buy wine, but the people there were super kindly. Duke and Manna were the owners, she even promised to help them out when they needed to harvest their grapes in fall. It sounded like a fun idea to her, and she wanted to make a bunch of friends in this new town.

Also on her small journey she found the mayor's house and some other houses with other residents in the town. "Everyone in this town is just radiating with kindness…" with that said she walked into the store that had just opened before she got there.

It was a small store with two rows of different items on the left and right side; there was also ton of seeds in the middle, labeled: Spring.

"Welcome!"

Claire almost jumped when she heard the voice, but she stopped herself and looked at the cash register where a man stood smiling happily. He had slick black hair and a small black mustache. He looked like a nice person, and his smile seemed kind enough.

"Welcome to my store." He said again in a shyer voice, losing his confidence really fast. "Are you new around here?"

"Oh!" Claire brightened up and walked towards him, passing all the seeds she was about to ask for. "I'm Claire; I run the new farm out in the countryside. I came here to buy some seeds so I can start working." She had a bit of pride at that moment, she finally actually owned something, even if it was a small farm that's all run down and horrible looking.

"I'm Jeff," he smiled once again, "as you can see all my seeds are in the middle of the store, I have some pretty good prices on them so you can definitely make a good profit." He pointed towards all the seeds, "they're categorized by color. I'll tell you the price when you find one you like."

"Thanks." Claire nodded as she looked at the different colored bags of seed. She wanted to start out easily, so she might just choose the cheapest one. "How much are the Turnips?" She picked up a small white looking bag to show him.

"They're the cheapest and easiest to start out with. They're 120G per bag; each bag can fill nine units of your farm." He explained as he started to get the cashier ready for the check out. Claire seemed to decide quickly on choosing the turnips since she needed a good start out plant.

She easily took out 120G and gave him it kindly, "Thank you." Jeff smiled brightly when the money was in his hands. Claire just nodded and started out with door; before she could leave someone walked in. It was a girl with brownish blonde hair with a highlight in it. She looked kind of mean, but at the same time nice. It was hard to tell.

"Oh." The girl exclaimed when she almost ran into Claire, "sorry." She smiled and walked in, dodging Claire.

"Oh Karen, I'd like you to meet the new farmer in Mineral Town." Jeff exclaimed; the girl named Karen first looked at Jeff, then her gaze turned towards Claire.

"Nice to meet you I guess…" Karen stared in an uneasy tone; people in this town weren't really used to new people showing up. "I thought that other guy John was going to run the farm."

"John?" Claire questioned the name not familiar to her. "I'm Claire; I bought the farm a few days ago…" Confusion was easily read in her voice. Whoever this John was, he was supposed to have the farm, not her.

"Oh, well okay," Karen shrugged, the topic not too interesting to her. "That's just what I heard, but I can hear wrong."

"Well I hope so," Claire smiled in an uneasy way, "I spent most of my money on that farm, I don't want some guy named John taking it away."

"If he hasn't showed up now, he probably won't." Karen guessed, and Claire nodded to it; she had to get back to _her_ farm to plant those seeds before dark.


	4. The Horse

It took her most of the afternoon to plant the seeds she had just gotten, and after planting them she had to water them to get a good start on them growing. The entire time she was planting the name John always popped up in her mind as if he was some kind of curse.

"He's not going to show up, of course not." She reassured herself when she finished watering the last plant, she looked at her watch and noticed it was already five o'clock in the afternoon. She quickly put up her hoe and watering can in her tool box and walked outside to greet Zack.

"Do you have anything for me today, Claire?" He asked in a friendly voice, she shook her head in disappointment, but he had an understanding expression as he walked to her instead of to her bin. "Its your first week here, its going to take some time before you get some good produce in. I see that you've already started planting, that's good." He looked at all her hard work and congratulated her on it. She was glowing in pride by the time he left and the clock struck six.

There was one thing she never will understand about Mineral Town, and it's that night comes too fast. It's as if as soon as the clock hits six it's as dark as midnight and as silent too. She shivered from the cold and decided it was about time for her to turn in and get some well earned sleep. She didn't want to wake up late like this morning, she had to put her act together if she was going to be a good farmer.

hr

The morning was shining through her only window when she awoke at exactly six o'clock that morning. She smiled with pride when she looked at the time and instantly grabbed her watering can to water her turnips first thing in the morning. Speed was waiting for her outside when she stepped out and she went to pet him before he ran off once again to god knows where.

"First I'll water the plants, then I'll talk with people in town some more." She concluded to herself as she filled up her watering can and went to her field. It didn't take much time watering the plants and she was done in half an hour.

Before going in town she took a break by the tree close to the pond where she got her water; Zack told her that the tree was a good one to keep since it was an apple tree which could give her apples in the fall. She loved apples so she decided to keep the tree around and water it as well along with her plants. Speed stopped by to rest beside her before running off into the field once more. It was then that she decided to head into town before it became too late and everyone was busy.

Her destination: The Inn.

Shes never really been to an inn before, when she lived in the city all she could afford was a cheap dirty apartment as she worked half-time at some store. Now inns were different from hotels or motels, or at least in her opinion. Inns had a nicer atmosphere to them in her opinion, it was like a home away from home and not some random place you stay for the night. The people are usually nice and polite along with delicious cooking; usually owned by a family business.

Claire pondered on these thoughts as she walked into town, the countryside way, to the only Inn in town. She faintly wondered why there was an inn when no one really came to visit Mineral Town, and everyone living here should have a place to stay.

As she walked through Rose Square she noticed Gray looking at the Bulletin Board before turning away and walking in her direction. She tried to slip and hide from his view, but he spotted her before she could even try. "Hey!" He called out, his shy demeanor seemed exactly the same as before.

"Hey." Claire responded walking up to him and stopping in front of him. "Off to the blacksmith's?" She asked knowing he'd go there since he worked there.

"Yeah, grandpa always wants me over there so I can learn how to be a blacksmith when I plan on getting a career." He commented, sighing at the fact that he had to go into the family business when all he wanted to do was go back to the city; the one place where Claire wanted to escape from.

"At least you have something planned, I have no clue ' what I'm going to do." Claire chuckled, scratching the back of her head nervously. She liked the farm and all, but did she really want to be a farmer for the rest of her life?

"I guess..." He trailed off, looking at the time on his watch. "I better get going before I'm late. It was nice talking to you." He stated walking around her and heading in the direction she was just from.

She stood there for a moment thinking about the time and how Gray was in this exact spot two days before. "He must not live with his grandpa." She finally concluded moving on to head to the inn. She was anxious to meet the people who ran the place.

The walk wasn't long at all before she stopped in front of the inn doors. The sign next to it said it was open every day from 8 A.M. to 9 P.M. Closed on holidays.

"Here goes." She said with a goofy grin on her face as she opened one of the two doors to the Inn. The atmosphere was exactly how she expected; it felt like a home away from home. There were tables spread equally around the room with chairs at every single one of them, most were empty, but some residents from the town were sitting down and talking to each other. A girl with orange hair in a braid instantly ran towards the door when Claire fully walked in and closed the door. She looked happy and friendly, but definitely overly excited to see a new person in her inn.

"Hi!" She greeted, "I'm Ann!" Her voice was a bit high pitched, but only from the excitement in her voice. Claire could instantly tell that Ann was a very hyper person to be around.

"Hey," Claire responded attempting to sound just as excited, but failed in the process. "I'm new around here, my name is Claire."

"New? Do you need a place to stay because we're all out of rooms here." Ann replied instantly with a depressed look on her face. Claire looked completely confused that people actually stayed there.

"Oh no, I run the farm out in the country, I'm walking around to make sure I meet everyone." She answered feeling awkward from the look Ann was giving her. Ann seemed confused in her own way.

"I thought the owner of the farm was going to be a boy?" Ann asked, but shaking off her confused manner and replaced it with a smile. "Oh well, nice to meet you and welcome to Mineral Town!" She grabbed Claire's hand and shook it rapidly before letting go and showing her around the cozy Inn. Claire then found out there were only two rooms in the Inn and they were owned by Cliff and Gray, the two boys she had already met.

'I knew he didn't live with his Grandpa, but to be living in an inn no wonder why he wants to go back to the city, to be back in a normal house.' Claire thought to herself and continued to follow Ann as she showed her everything in the Inn and even allowed her to sample some of their delicious food from her father Doug.

"This place is wonderful, I love it!" Claire concluded after the free lunch she was served and noticed the time was already one! "I better go! I have a farm I need to be looking after." She sighed and slipped out of the Inn before they wanted her to stay longer. She decided she would go back to her farm to make sure everything was in order before looking elsewhere.

As she was walking back to the countryside she could not help but hear a little girl crying coming from the Yodel Farm. Claire stopped in her tracks and walked in to see if she could help the poor girl stop crying. From the looks of the scene she was crying over a pony and her grandfather was attempting to stop her crying.

"We just can't keep him, May." The old man stated with a sigh, looking at the pony and back at the girl. "We have too many cows and horses to be taking another one in. We just need to find a place for him to stay for a year as we fix this place up."

"I don't want him to leave us!" May cried out, not liking what her grandfather was saying at all. She walked closer to the pony and hugged him tightly.

"Excuse me, is there any way I can help?" Claire asked awkwardly, walking forward towards the two residents of the farm. "I always hate to see little girls crying."

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, but who exactly are you?" The old man asked as May ran up to her and hugged her tightly.

"Take care of him take care of him, take care of him!" She chanted, hugging tighter and tighter.

"I'm Claire, I run the farm down the road, the Harvest Farm. I'm new, but I'm really trying to make this farm work." Claire introduced herself and bowed slightly. She then started patting May on the head, "I'm not sure if I can take care of a pony yet though."

"You're perfect, a newly born horse along with a newly starting farmer. Why not try to take care of this little guy, we don't have room for him and we're going through some money problems at the moment. It would be amazing if you can take him in." The old man stated, looking really concerned for his granddaughter. "I'm Barley, the owner of the Yodel Farm."

"Pleaseeee, pretty pleaseeee!" May whined in a cute manner and almost started crying again.

"Oh alright, I couldn't possibly say no to that face." Claire replied, smiling towards May and May smiled back with the cutest expression on her face.

"Thank you so much!" May shouted not able to contain her excitement. "Now you just need to give him an awesome name and we'll take him over to your stable."

"You two are very kind, I'll take good care of him." Claire said and attempted to think of a name for her new pony. Her dog's name was Speed so maybe she could keep up with a theme for her farm animals. "His name shall be Runner."

"Such a cute name!" May squealed and pranced around with a smile on her face. "I can't wait to hang out with you big sister!"

"Big sister?" Claire asked herself before she practically squealed. "I've never had a little sister before, you're the best!"

Barley laughed and smiled at the two girls' excitement and decided to use this time to walk Runner to her farm before it gets too late. "May, dear can you explain to Claire the things she needs to know on how to take care of Runner?"

"Sure thing grandpa!" May responded and saluted to him as he walked by them with Runner following closely afterwards. "First of all talk to the pony, he loves to be talked to and definitely brushed a lot, every day! Second keep him out of the rain and safely in the stable when its not sunny, and thirdly make sure to have him outside when it is sunny so he can be happy and carefree." May explained in her normal excited little voice. Claire giggled at her excitement and even felt happier to have taken the horse in her care.

"Where can I find a brush?" Claire asked to make sure she could follow all the instructions well and not mess up.

"The Black smith shop." May replied simply and smiled. "For 800G not too expensive, right? I would help but we're really low on money, also if you want to buy a sheep or cow we sell them here."

"You are a helpful little girl, May." Claire commented with a matching smile. "We're going to be great friends while I live here."

"And I can already tell you're going to like Gray." May grinned childishly and turned away to run towards her grandfather who had just got back from putting her new horse in her stables.

"Huh?" Claire blushed and looked at the fleeting little girl. "Do I?" She asked herself and excused herself from the Yodel Farm to head back to her farm before it got too late.


	5. The Countryside

By the time she got to her farm all she wanted to do was sleep. She didn't know why May said what she said, but it really stuck to her mind and stayed for a while before she finally got to sleep. "Do I like Gray, I mean I don't really know him yet, but he is a nice guy." She pondered before she fell asleep and woke up the next morning at exactly 6am once again.

The first thing she did was water her turnips which did not take too long and went to talk to her horse before heading into town to see what she could do to pass the time. She walked by the Blacksmith shop, thinking about what May had said and blushed a bit before walking faster to get away from it. As she was walking as fast as she could away from the shop she ended up bumping right into the one guy she did not want to see at the moment.

"I am so sorry!" She apologized and bowed, not knowing what else to say to the boy.

"Oh, it's okay." He laughed nervously, blushing slightly from the embarrassment. "I was just wondering if you'd like to hang out today." He scratched the back of his head, looking at the ground instead of Claire's face. Her blush increased and looked straight at the ground too.

"Don't you have work?" She asked, thinking of excuses to get out of it, but her mind was completely blank.

"I normally don't work on Thursdays, but I took yesterday to work and asked for today off thinking it would be a good way to hang out with you." He answered shyly. "But if you don't want to thats fine too."

"No, no, no I would love to hang out with you." She replied, thinking 'What am I thinking?' "I did't have anything planned for today anyways." She looked up towards his bowed head and shyly smiled

"Great!" He smiled and looked up at her which just made both of them blush deeply.

He had said he wanted to show her the countryside, the only place she had yet to journey to which made things a lot more interesting. He showed her the hot springs and the mine right next to it along with the lake next to it. She commented saying it was really pretty and Gray shyly just said that they should move on if they wanted to see more of the countryside also commenting that they can possibly spend sometime next to the lake some other time.

"This town just keeps getting better and better." Claire commented, smiling at all the wonderful things around her, forgetting about May and her silly little comment. Whether she liked Gray or not, all she could think about was how amazing her surroundings were.

"While I love the city, this place is quite relaxing." Gray responded with a shy chuckle and they continued on to the rest of the area. He had a destination he was determined to get to before the end of the day.

There were flowers everywhere, Gray picked one out and handed it to Claire saying it was a small gift. She smiled at his attempt to be sweet and put it in her hair to show she loved it. They took a break on a stump close to another lake, talking for a bit and getting to know each other. They talked about why she left the city and did not want to go back, while he explained why he wanted to go back, but also enjoyed Mineral Town just as much as Claire did. He looked down at his watch and realized that it was getting later and hurried on to the next spot before he ran out of time.

Claire kept thinking about what he was going to show her, she noticed all the times where he would look at his watch and make a comment on the time and how it was getting late. She did not know what he wanted to show her, but she could tell it was important to him and she allowed him to lead her to all the different spots in the amazing countryside of Mineral Town. It just made her love the town more and more. The people were surprisingly nice, the scenery was wonderful and everyday just felt like a whole new adventure.

Gray hurried on to the next spot, which happened to be a wide area covered in flowers, he made a comment about a small boy whom loved to go here with girls from the town when they were young, but he did not stick to that topic for too long and instead just admired the flowers and allowed Claire to look around and love the surroundings.

"This is the best place ever!" She yelled at the top of her voice, and spun around until she was dizzy and landed in the soft grass. Gray just chuckled with a huge blush on his cheeks and once again checked his watch and got the same hurried expression he has been expressing all day. This time Claire checked the time and noticed it was getting close to six already. She didn't expect the day to go by as fast as it did, but she had to admit that she had an extremely fun day either way.

He stopped chuckling and helped Claire up so they could continue on, saying there was one last place to see before the end of their great adventure. She followed him up a hillside which seemed like a long walk, but since they were talking to the whole way up it did not feel like such a long time, but by the time they almost reached the top of the hill, called Mother Hill, it was already pitch black and Gray had to hold her hand just to keep them together and not fall down.

Right when she got on top of the hillside she could tell this is what he was hurrying her for, and after seeing it she could tell it was worth it. It was a perfect view of the stars and the moon, no clouds in the sky, no smoke hiding the wonderus night. It was just her and Gray staring at the beautiful night sky.

"Oh Gray, this is amazing..." She whispered, almost losing her voice to the night sky.

"I just thought it was a good chance to show you all the beauties of this town." He replied, leading her to the edge of the hill and seating her down before sitting down himself. "I kept on telling you that I loved this town as well, and this is one of the reasons."

"I can see the whole town from here, and look over there that's my farm." Claire pointed excitingly at the small version of her farm, her slightly wondering where her little Speed was. "It's beautiful Gray." She concluded looking at the stars in the sky.

"Yup, extremely beautiful." He sighed happily as he glanced at Claire, then back at the sky. Making sure she did not see what he had just meant. "I could stay up here all night."

"Me too." Claire responded without a second thought, laying down on the ground to get a better view of the sky.

"I have a question for you." Gray whispered almost so Claire could not hear her.

"What is it?" She asked, sitting back up to focus all her attention on the boy next to her.

"Will you go with me to the Goddess Festival?" He choked on his words slightly, but not enough for her to not understand him.

"What's the Goddess Festival?" Claire asked, completely clueless.

Gray almost lose his confidence, but swallowed hard and attempted to explain the festival. "Mineral Town has a lot of festivals throughout the year, this one is where the girls dance and usually take a date with them. Don't ask me why, but my Grandpa wants me to go and I don't want to go alone. I asked around to see if one of the boys would just go with me so I wouldn't go alone, but they were all going with another girl from the town. I thought about it and remembered that you were new and most likely didn't have anyone to go with."

'Whoa, that was the most I have ever heard him say.' Claire thought to herself, but nodded her head. "Of course I'll go with you, Gray." She smiled sweetly, "I'd be honored."


End file.
